Sterling Carbines?

[rdb241]

Lower case spelling with the 'tac', please. Only self-agrandising blowhards get called by capital letters.

tac

Sorry I did that from my phone

 

[Tinpanzer87]

I had one and it was a blast to shoot sights were off but it functioned fine with steel cased and brass cased 9mm ammo. Mags have a built in roller and are smooth as butter as far as feeding and loading goes.

 

[CountryGent]

Thanks for the info @Tinpanzer87.

 

[Tinpanzer87]

No problem if i remember correctly Century arms contracted the builds out to Wiselite Arms in Texas.

 

[mrblond]

Are they not very basic weapons? I think a guy with a machine shop could build one no problem. I know the Israelis built Stens in garages during their independence back in the late 40s.

 

[Tinpanzer87]

Just a Tube with welds for the receiver . That's why they called the sten gun the "plumbers abortion". I think the Danish resistance made some in a bicycle shop during WWII also. The sten gun mags are a horrible single feed design.

 

[Alexx1401]

Are they not very basic weapons? I think a guy with a machine shop could build one no problem. I know the Israelis built Stens in garages during their independence back in the late 40s.

Yes the "design" has LONG been something you would see "kits" and plans for in places like the Shotgun News. The open bolt version is one of the easiest guns to make if you are not an expert. They took very little real know how and could be done with very rudimentary tooling if needed.

 

[ron]

J & B Firearms in Beaverton had two Stens a couple weeks ago.
I think they were like $2400 each! I shot one of
those homemade muffler tube plus a shotgun news Sten kit
"plumbers abortion" years ago. Fires from an open bolt.
Cheap crude design. IMHO

 

[Alexx1401]

J & B Firearms in Beaverton had two Stens a couple weeks ago.
I think they were like $2400 each! I shot one of
those homemade muffler tube plus a shotgun news Sten kit
"plumbers abortion" years ago. Fires from an open bolt.
Cheap crude design. IMHO

There was a bust up my way a while back where the guy had boxes of what looked like new Stens. The story of course did not give any detail. From the pics I was guessing that the "homemade" design was what they were. Before the net was set up by Algore you used to see the plans and parts for sale from all kinds of places. Shows and the shotgun news always had them. The design if you wanted the open bolt full auto only was dead simple to make. Many of them actually did work.

 

[Stomper]

FYI- open-bolt ANYTHING (pre-'86 registered) is a no-go with ATF and they'll probably go after you with "intent" charges.

 

[tac]

The British-made Patchett/Sterling was VERY well-made. The breech-block had a set of spiffy-looking spiral grooves cut into it to clear detritus out of the action, and, like I noted, every one that I fired over 33 years, even after they were made obsolete in the main army, was very accurate - no ping-pong ball was safe at 50m.

The magazine, too, was utterly bombproof, with twin rollers for ease of loading and sure-fire feeding - 32 rounds right there.

Perhaps those of you here have never seen the real deal, just some kind of a copy? Get hold of the real thing, and be happy.

Or rather, don't as I see that your BATF has no kind regard for open-bolt firearms. Of course, everybody knows how dangerous THEY can be in the wrong hands - it's not like they were an AR of any kind being used to commit mayhem, is it?

tac

 

[jbett98]

Marlin made an open bolt rifle back in 1934. It's the model 50 and I had one awhile back.
Seems that there was a way to jam the sear so it would fire full auto, but it only had a ten rd mag, so only 12 yr old boys would try to make that work.
Some collector back East bought mine for a lot of cash.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...m.html&usg=AFQjCNGTeioRoFmrb6P2Zb0wVJy_9Gn0tQ

 

[Alexx1401]

FYI- open-bolt ANYTHING (pre-'86 registered) is a no-go with ATF and they'll probably go after you with "intent" charges.

I would have to take a guess that 99% of the people who are buying/ downloading plans to make a Sten are not planning on trying to make it a Legal gun. Back when I used to see these things at the shows that was the whole point. People wanting to make a full auto with no registration. Of course back then you "could" paper these. Often the sellers would have a stack of Form 1's sitting there and tell you to follow one before you did what they were showing you. This was to give them an out with the BATF guys.
It was the same thing with the early open bolt Mac-10, Mac 11, KG9, and such made to fire open bolt semi. No one who ever tried to shoot a handgun that fired from an open bolt wanted one. You could not hit anything. Those sold because they were dead simple to turn into an illegal machine gun. That was why the BATF made them stop making them.

 

[Alexx1401]

The British-made Patchett/Sterling was VERY well-made. The breech-block had a set of spiffy-looking spiral grooves cut into it to clear detritus out of the action, and, like I noted, every one that I fired over 33 years, even after they were made obsolete in the main army, was very accurate - no ping-pong ball was safe at 50m.

The magazine, too, was utterly bombproof, with twin rollers for ease of loading and sure-fire feeding - 32 rounds right there.

Perhaps those of you here have never seen the real deal, just some kind of a copy? Get hold of the real thing, and be happy.

Or rather, don't as I see that your BATF has no kind regard for open-bolt firearms. Of course, everybody knows how dangerous THEY can be in the wrong hands - it's not like they were an AR of any kind being used to commit mayhem, is it?

tac

The original did work fantastic. That was not the only thing they had going for them. They were very cheap to make. The design is dead simple. Open bolt also works well even in semi if you have a stock on it. The open bolt guns the BATF went after the most here were pistol versions of machine guns, Like the Ingram copy.
The design of the Sten being so simple is why so many illegal were made. The design is very simple to do and do well in a shop set up for it. When someone who is not even a machinist does it in the garage of course you get mixed results.

 

[PDXSparky]

I would have to take a guess that 99% of the people who are buying/ downloading plans to make a Sten are not planning on trying to make it a Legal gun. Back when I used to see these things at the shows that was the whole point. People wanting to make a full auto with no registration. Of course back then you "could" paper these. Often the sellers would have a stack of Form 1's sitting there and tell you to follow one before you did what they were showing you. This was to give them an out with the BATF guys.
It was the same thing with the early open bolt Mac-10, Mac 11, KG9, and such made to fire open bolt semi. No one who ever tried to shoot a handgun that fired from an open bolt wanted one. You could not hit anything. Those sold because they were dead simple to turn into an illegal machine gun. That was why the BATF made them stop making them.

This ^
The only open bolt gun you'd want to admit to owning now would be a full auto transferable with the appropriate paperwork in your possession.

 

[Alexx1401]

This ^
The only open bolt gun you'd want to admit to owning now would be a full auto transferable with the appropriate paperwork in your possession.

Yep. I have little doubt there is still a few of the old RPB and KG9's floating around that were bought when they were still making these. I had a RPB .45 and a KG9 9mm when they cut off the sales. Paid like $200 for them and only bought them since they were going to make them stop making them. Both were worthless if you wanted to actually hit anything you shot at. Price of course sailed through the damn roof. I sold mine when someone who just had to have them was willing to pay many times what I paid. I remember for years after the cut off one store in Prescott must have had cases of them. He was selling them POR for a long damn time until he ran out. I'm sure he made a killing on the damn things. I am sure you could still find on on the auctions for some ridicules price. Free market and all.

 

[Captain O]

Looks like the Stromtrooper's rifle from the original Star Wars.

Neat carbine .... How available are spare parts and magazines?
With an M1 Carbine lots of places have parts and magazines.
So for me I still might be leaning in that direction...
Andy

Andy,

Buy a really nice M1 Carbine and feed it Underwood ammunition when "the feces impacts the rotating air motivator". Welcome back to the dark side... (we have cookies).

 

[Alexx1401]

FYI- open-bolt ANYTHING (pre-'86 registered) is a no-go with ATF and they'll probably go after you with "intent" charges.

I just took a quick look and as I suspected you can still buy these. They had several. Price is now actually less than what I sold mine for decades ago. I guess many finally figured out they were about worthless. Back when these were a common item there was kits to make them select fire. Rather than just kill the disconecter so it would be full auto only. If someone wants one of the originals the Feds are not going to bother them unless they are dumb enough to have one of the kits along with the pistol. I never could understand why people were paying the price mine went for. I mean if you're stupid enough to want to make an illegal gun there are far cheaper ways to do it than convert one of these things.